Reports & Testimonies

GAO’s recommendations database contains report recommendations that still need to be addressed.

GAO’s recommendations help congressional and agency leaders prepare for appropriations
and oversight activities, as well as help improve government operations. Recommendations
remain open until they are designated as Closed-implemented or Closed-not implemented.
You can explore open recommendations by searching or browsing.

GAO's priority recommendations are those that we believe warrant priority attention. We sent
letters to the heads of key departments and agencies, urging them to continue focusing
on these issues. These recommendations are labeled as such. You can find priority recommendations
by searching or browsing our open recommendations below, or through our mobile app.

Recommendation: To ensure the effective implementation of federal program inventory requirements and to make the inventories more useful, the Director of OMB should, to better present a more coherent picture of all federal programs, revise relevant guidance to direct agencies to collaborate with each other in defining and identifying programs that contribute to common outcomes.

Agency: Executive Office of the President: Office of Management and BudgetStatus: Open

Comments: As of July 2017, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) staff stated that they had not taken any actions in response to our recommendations related to the federal program inventory, as they continued to determine how best to implement inventory requirements in coordination with those of the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (DATA Act) and the Program Management Improvement Accountability Act (PMIAA). OMB staff told us they will issue guidance to implement PMIAA by the end of 2017. They noted that a program inventory would help agencies meet PMIAA requirements such as conducting program portfolio reviews. Staff told us they cannot commit to an implementation date for the inventory updates because of methodological and timing challenges, but they anticipate making significant progress within a year of issuing the PMIAA guidance. We will continue to monitor progress.

Recommendation: To ensure the effective implementation of federal program inventory requirements and to make the inventories more useful, the Director of OMB should, to better present a more coherent picture of all federal programs, revise relevant guidance to provide a time frame for what constitutes "persistent over time" that agencies can use as a decision rule for whether to include short-term efforts as programs.

Agency: Executive Office of the President: Office of Management and BudgetStatus: Open

Comments: As of July 2017, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) staff stated that they had not taken any actions in response to our recommendations related to the federal program inventory, as they continued to determine how best to implement inventory requirements in coordination with those of the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (DATA Act) and the Program Management Improvement Accountability Act (PMIAA). OMB staff told us they will issue guidance to implement PMIAA by the end of 2017. They noted that a program inventory would help agencies meet PMIAA requirements such as conducting program portfolio reviews. Staff told us they cannot commit to an implementation date for the inventory updates because of methodological and timing challenges, but they anticipate making significant progress within a year of issuing the PMIAA guidance. We will continue to monitor progress.

Recommendation: To ensure the effective implementation of federal program inventory requirements and to make the inventories more useful, the Director of OMB should, to better present a more coherent picture of all federal programs, define plans for when additional agencies will be required to develop program inventories.

Agency: Executive Office of the President: Office of Management and BudgetStatus: Open

Comments: As of July 2017, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) staff stated that they had not taken any actions in response to our recommendations related to the federal program inventory, as they continued to determine how best to implement inventory requirements in coordination with those of the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (DATA Act) and the Program Management Improvement Accountability Act (PMIAA). OMB staff told us they will issue guidance to implement PMIAA by the end of 2017. They noted that a program inventory would help agencies meet PMIAA requirements such as conducting program portfolio reviews. Staff told us they cannot commit to an implementation date for the inventory updates because of methodological and timing challenges, but they anticipate making significant progress within a year of issuing the PMIAA guidance. We will continue to monitor progress.

Recommendation: To ensure the effective implementation of federal program inventory requirements and to make the inventories more useful, the Director of OMB should, to better present a more coherent picture of all federal programs, include tax expenditures in the federal program inventory effort by designating tax expenditure as a program type in relevant guidance.

Agency: Executive Office of the President: Office of Management and BudgetStatus: OpenPriority recommendation

Comments: As of July 2017, OMB had not taken action to include tax expenditures in the federal program inventory, as GAO recommended in October 2014. The GPRA Modernization Act of 2010 (GPRAMA) requires OMB to publish a list of all federal programs on a central, government-wide website. The federal program inventory is the primary tool for agencies to identify programs that contribute to their goals, according to OMB's guidance. By including tax expenditures in the inventory, OMB could help ensure that agencies are properly identifying the contributions of tax expenditures to the achievement of their goals. Although OMB published an initial inventory covering the programs of 24 federal agencies in May 2013, OMB decided to postpone further development of the inventory in order to coordinate with the implementation of the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (DATA Act). In July 2015, GAO recommended that OMB accelerate efforts to merge DATA Act purposes with the production of a federal program inventory. In July 2017, OMB guidance and staff stated they are determining how best to implement the program inventory requirements in coordination with those of the DATA Act and the Program Management Improvement Accountability Act. Without including tax expenditures in the inventory, OMB is missing an important opportunity to increase the transparency of tax expenditures and the outcomes to which they contribute.

Recommendation: To ensure the effective implementation of federal program inventory requirements and to make the inventories more useful, the Director of OMB should, to better present a more coherent picture of all federal programs, include tax expenditures in the federal program inventory effort by developing, in coordination with the Secretary of the Treasury, a tax expenditure inventory that identifies each tax expenditure and provides a description of how the tax expenditure is defined, its purpose, and related performance and budget information.

Agency: Executive Office of the President: Office of Management and BudgetStatus: OpenPriority recommendation

Comments: As of July 2017, OMB had not taken action to include tax expenditures in the federal program inventory, as GAO recommended in October 2014. The GPRA Modernization Act of 2010 (GPRAMA) requires OMB to publish a list of all federal programs on a central, government-wide website. The federal program inventory is the primary tool for agencies to identify programs that contribute to their goals, according to OMB's guidance. By including tax expenditures in the inventory, OMB could help ensure that agencies are properly identifying the contributions of tax expenditures to the achievement of their goals. Although OMB published an initial inventory covering the programs of 24 federal agencies in May 2013, OMB decided to postpone further development of the inventory in order to coordinate with the implementation of the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (DATA Act). In July 2015, GAO recommended that OMB accelerate efforts to merge DATA Act purposes with the production of a federal program inventory. In July 2017, OMB guidance and staff stated they are determining how best to implement the program inventory requirements in coordination with those of the DATA Act and the Program Management Improvement Accountability Act. Without including tax expenditures in the inventory, OMB is missing an important opportunity to increase the transparency of tax expenditures and the outcomes to which they contribute.

Recommendation: To ensure the effective implementation of federal program inventory requirements and to make the inventories more useful, the Director of OMB should, to help ensure that the information agencies provide in their inventories is useful to federal decision makers and key stakeholders, and to provide greater transparency and ensure consistency in federal program funding and performance information, revise relevant guidance to direct agencies to consult with relevant congressional committees and stakeholders on their program definition approach and identified programs when developing or updating their inventories.

Agency: Executive Office of the President: Office of Management and BudgetStatus: Open

Comments: As of July 2017, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) staff stated that they had not taken any actions in response to our recommendations related to the federal program inventory, as they continued to determine how best to implement inventory requirements in coordination with those of the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (DATA Act) and the Program Management Improvement Accountability Act (PMIAA). OMB staff told us they will issue guidance to implement PMIAA by the end of 2017. They noted that a program inventory would help agencies meet PMIAA requirements such as conducting program portfolio reviews. Staff told us they cannot commit to an implementation date for the inventory updates because of methodological and timing challenges, but they anticipate making significant progress within a year of issuing the PMIAA guidance. We will continue to monitor progress.

Recommendation: To ensure the effective implementation of federal program inventory requirements and to make the inventories more useful, the Director of OMB should, to help ensure that the information agencies provide in their inventories is useful to federal decision makers and key stakeholders, and to provide greater transparency and ensure consistency in federal program funding and performance information, revise relevant guidance to direct agencies to identify in their inventories the performance goal(s) to which each program contributes.

Agency: Executive Office of the President: Office of Management and BudgetStatus: Open

Comments: As of July 2017, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) staff stated that they had not taken any actions in response to our recommendations related to the federal program inventory, as they continued to determine how best to implement inventory requirements in coordination with those of the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (DATA Act) and the Program Management Improvement Accountability Act (PMIAA). OMB staff told us they will issue guidance to implement PMIAA by the end of 2017. They noted that a program inventory would help agencies meet PMIAA requirements such as conducting program portfolio reviews. Staff told us they cannot commit to an implementation date for the inventory updates because of methodological and timing challenges, but they anticipate making significant progress within a year of issuing the PMIAA guidance. We will continue to monitor progress.

Recommendation: To ensure the effective implementation of federal program inventory requirements and to make the inventories more useful, the Director of OMB should, to help ensure that the information agencies provide in their inventories is useful to federal decision makers and key stakeholders, and to provide greater transparency and ensure consistency in federal program funding and performance information, ensure, during OMB reviews of inventories, that agencies consistently identify, as applicable, the strategic goals, strategic objectives, agency priority goals, and cross-agency priority goals each program supports.

Agency: Executive Office of the President: Office of Management and BudgetStatus: Open

Comments: As of July 2017, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) staff stated that they had not taken any actions in response to our recommendations related to the federal program inventory, as they continued to determine how best to implement inventory requirements in coordination with those of the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (DATA Act) and the Program Management Improvement Accountability Act (PMIAA). OMB staff told us they will issue guidance to implement PMIAA by the end of 2017. They noted that a program inventory would help agencies meet PMIAA requirements such as conducting program portfolio reviews. Staff told us they cannot commit to an implementation date for the inventory updates because of methodological and timing challenges, but they anticipate making significant progress within a year of issuing the PMIAA guidance. We will continue to monitor progress.